West Haven officials say ‘renovate-as-new’ high school project likely to begin in 2017

Officials say project is likely to begin in the spring of 2017

Published 11:20 pm, Monday, March 7, 2016

WH mayor, supe on new WHHS

Media: New Haven Register

WEST HAVEN >> The project to rebuild West Haven High School remains a “renovate-as-new” project with the same state project number and original 75 percent reimbursement rate and is likely to begin in the spring of 2017, Superintendent of Schools Neil Cavallaro and Mayor Ed O’Brien told the Board of Education Monday night.

Cavallaro told the board he felt compelled to discuss the project’s status because of conflicting details that have been circulated about where it stands following a recent meeting with state officials that followed a letter from the city saying it no longer wanted to proceed with the current project and it “must be terminated.”

“I think what we decided was not to scrap what we were working on,” he said.

Photo: Journal Register Co.

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West Haven Mayor Ed O'Brien, right, discusses the proposed West HavenHigh School project with the Board of Education Monday night.

West Haven Mayor Ed O'Brien, right, discusses the proposed West HavenHigh School project with the Board of Education Monday night.

Photo: Journal Register Co.

West Haven officials say ‘renovate-as-new’ high school project likely to begin in 2017

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In response to a question from board member Patrick Leigh about whether the new project would remain renovate-as-new or be an all-new construction project, Cavallaro said there were advantages to keeping it the same project with the same number and reimbursement rate, but that neither the state nor city and school officials were comfortable with encapsulted asbestos remaining in the renovated building, as the current plan calls for.

Now, “we are confident that the state supports us ... so we are committed to moving the project forward,” Cavallaro said.

O’Brien, who attended the board meeting, said state officials were concerned about cost “and if they’re going to spend that much money, they don’t want it to still have asbestos.” Neither does the city, he said. He said the project would remain renovate-as-new, and said he expected that construction would begin in the Spring of 2017.

The mayor previously said he expects there to be changes in the way the project is managed. The only one of which officals were willing to talk about was replacing the current West Haven High School Building Committee with a new one.

O’Brien has said that after changes are made in the way the project is managed, even with the complete removal of asbestos, he didn’t expect there to be an appreciable difference in the cost, which had been cut to $124.69 million by the time the city said it wanted to put the project “on hold” in October.

O’Brien has not provided specifics of how the project might move forward with full asbestos abatement at a similar cost to a project involving encapsulation – something that was planned as a cost-saving measure.

But he told the school board that “the state is concerned that there were a lot of redundancies,” and that that would change.

“I’m sure Turner Construction,” the general contractor is staying,” as is architect John Antinozzi, O’Brien said. But other things “will have to be shifted around” and there are likely to be fewer subcontractors, he said.

O’Brien did not mention the owner’s representative, Capitol Region Education Council, or CREC, in his comments to the board. Asked about CREC’s status after the meeting, all O’Brien would say was that CREC remains on the project at this time.

He told the board, “I think the talks with the state have been very advantageous,” and that among the benefits are that now a state architect will be assigned to work with the project’s architect.

A “build as new” project initiated now would have had a 65 percent reimbursement rate, although more items would have been eligible for reimbursement, O’Brien has said.

The new design also will address some issues that the state Department of Administrative Services had raised in a letter to Cavallaro about educational specification not matching the design.